RE: This too is technical communication

["Al Geist" <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>]

Kevin Amery wrote in response to Chris Borokowski:

<> You're so right! The profession needs to get more
> Darwinistic in its rejection of the people who write
> some of these manuals, which are clearly by idiots for
> idiots.

Uhhh.... how?

Lawyers can be disbarred. Doctors can lose their licenses. But how,
precisely, would you kick someone out of the TW profession?
(Especially when there are some companies out there who have junior
developers or admin assistants write their docs.) How exactly would
you enforce that someone would never be allowed to write a manual
again? What's to stop a clueless company from hiring them?>


The answer is you can't. We can only go on creating the best documentation
possible under adverse conditions and not spend time worrying about Company
Z's abysmal pubs. Hopefully, the users will ultimately decide who will be
cut from the profession by not buying products with garbage for supporting
documentation, but don't waste time waiting for that to happen. As long as
companies place documentation at the end of the development process, right
after ordering pizza for the launch party, and as long as those companies
use the cheapest writers they can find, you will have manuals written by
idiots for idiots.

Actually, it makes more work for us who have high standards. We get to
rework those pieces of cattle dung into objects of art.

Al Geist
Technical Writing, Help, Marketing Collateral, Web Design and Award Winning
Videos
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